Chiles: Use Other States' Anti-smoking Ads In Florida

AROUND CENTRAL FLORIDA

TALLAHASSEE — Broadcasters should help try to keep young people off cigarettes by running other states' anti-smoking ads, Gov. Lawton Chiles suggested Monday.

And they should keep on running those ads until the Sunshine State comes up with its own, the governor said.

In a conference call with nearly 40 television and radio station owners around Florida, Chiles said his anti-tobacco campaign has been on a roll after the late-August, $11 billion settlement of the state's court battle against cigarette makers.

''I think it's awful important we don't let a lag time develop here,'' the governor said.

Chiles also held conference-call meetings with cable television and billboard company owners, asking them to start donating time and space for anti-smoking ads.

''For years, kids have been bombarded with messages that cigarettes are cool, that you can be cool like the Marlboro man if you smoked them,'' he said.

Chiles said getting the message out to young people that smoking is bad for you is too important to wait until Florida creates its own ads to counter the message long peddled by the tobacco industry.